Pulitzer Prize General Non Fiction Winner
Ghost Wars
by Steve Coll
Summary
A detailed history of covert American involvement in Afghanistan, beginning with the Soviet invasion of 1979 and ending on the eve of the September 11 attacks. Coll draws on extensive interviews with CIA officers, diplomats, and Afghan and Pakistani figures to map the alliances and miscalculations that empowered the mujahideen and later the Taliban. It remains a foundational account of how the United States helped shape the very networks that would eventually strike it.
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Historical Context & Significance
Coll provides the "prehistory" of 9/11, showing how the U.S. helped create the very forces that would later turn against it.